Computer Access, Luminent price IPOs

Computer Access Technology (Nasdaq: CATZ) rose 3.94 to 15.94 in debut after pricing its initial public offering at $12 per share Thursday, at the bottom of its estimated price range.

The company, which makes Universal Serial Bus verification systems and connectivity products for computer makers, previously estimated its shares would price in a range of $12 to $14 per share.

The company is profitable. For the nine months ended Sept. 30, Computer Access had net income of $1 million on revenue of $14.71 million, compared to earnings of $1.09 million on revenue of $8.47 million in the year-ago period.

USB products generated about 90 percent of revenue in 1999, and 77 percent of sales in the first nine months of this year.

Computer Access competitors include 3A International, Finisar (Nasdaq: FNSR), National Instruments (Nasdaq: NATI), Rhode & Schwartz and Tektronix (NYSE: TEK). Many of these companies have substantially greater financial, technical, marketing and distribution resources and brand name recognition than Computer Access Technology, the company said in its filings with the SEC.

, a maker of fiber optic components for high-capacity data transmission, fell 0.38 to 11.63, after it priced 12 million shares at $12 each, below the range it set in September.

Shares of Luminent, a subsidiary of MRV Communications(Nasdaq: MRVC), were expected to price between $13 and $15 a share.

The company gets a large amount of revenue from two customers. In the first nine months of this year, Marconi accounted for 15 percent of Luminent's net sales and Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) accounted for 12 percent.

Although Luminent reported net income of $3.5 million and $4.2 million in 1998 and 1999, respectively, it lost $39.1 million in the first nine months of this year. The net loss was due to amortization of goodwill and deferred stock compensation related to the acquisitions of Fiber Optic Communications, Optronics and Quantum. Luminent also recorded charges related to employment arrangements senior executives, the company said in SEC filings.

"As a consequence of these goodwill amortization charges and compensation expenses, we do not expect to report net income in the foreseeable future," the company also stated.